


Let's Start From The Beginning

by CelticxPanda



Series: Melody From Another Ship [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Children, An AU for another fic of mine, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Original Character-centric, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Original Female Character, childhood promises of marriage, eventual polyamory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-07-18 14:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7318765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticxPanda/pseuds/CelticxPanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Also known as the Rookie Team 3 AU</p><p>In which Kourubi and her teammates are the same age as Naruto and friends. You can technically read this on it's own, but I would recommend you read the original work first: <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/6799135/chapters/15527845"> find it here </a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What a Nice Day for a White Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> As a thank you for my wonderful readers helping me reach 70 kudos on the main work 'Melody From Another World', I decided to start posting the little AU fics I'd been writing on the side. These will not be on the main posting schedule. Essentially I'll be posting these bits when I have one done, or if I can't make the usual update for whatever reason. I have several of these just floating around, so look forward to some interesting remixes of your favorite team of OCs!

I’d always believed in reincarnation…but mostly because it was a great way to rebel against my southern Catholic mother in a way that wasn’t going to get me hurt. Plus it just made the most logical sense. Souls, or at least the electrical impulses that made up people’s thoughts, had mass, even if it was just a little bit. Since mass couldn’t be created or destroyed, the soul’s mass had to come from somewhere. Hence: reincarnation. 

Actually being revived as a baby in another world, however, was far beyond any expectations I ever had.

I was three when I realized that some of my memories couldn’t actually be mine. They involved a family that wasn’t mine, a world that wasn’t mine, and a person that wasn’t me. But at the same time I was positive these were my memories. There were no names or faces in these memories. I couldn’t recall the faces of my family from Before. 

I couldn’t remember how I died either. Trying only sent me into a panic attack. So eventually I stopped trying. 

Kaa-san named me Kourubi. For the first few years of my life I never left the clan compound. Most of my time was spend playing alone, or feeding the crows, or with cousin Fukuro. I kind of liked Fukuro. He was nice and let me talk his ear off about anything my little mind could come up with. But there were times when he looked at me like I was a pot of water and he was waiting to see when I would boil. I didn’t like him when he looked at me like that.

I was five when I left the clan compound for the first time and truly realized where I was. Tou-san took me by the hand and led me through town, stopping every-so-often to speaking with strangely familiar men that my five-year-old self was certain she’d never seen before. It didn’t hit me why they were so familiar until we came over the hill and I saw it.

The Hokage monument.

My five-year-old self lacked the ability to fully process what was going on. Memories I’d had of this previously fictional world hit me with such force that I started crying. Not like, sobbing or anything, but I cried. 

Tou-san eventually noticed and kneeled down to look me in the eye. “What’s wrong Kourubi-chan? Are you tired? Let’s go back for today. We can sign you up at the academy tomorrow.”

The academy? As in the ninja academy? I shook my head and rubbed at my eyes. 

“M’okay. Let’s go, tou-san!” I grabbed his hand and tugged at it. 

He shook his head and led the way. Thoughts sped through my mind at a hundred miles an hour. There was no way I was ever going to be able to reconcile the fact that the world I lived in now had been fictional Before, no matter how old I was. The only appropriate question was, when had I been born? There were four faces on the mountain, so that led me to believe it’d have to been around the same time Naruto was born. Was I his age? Younger? Joining the academy was my only chance to find out. 

We reached the academy without any other incident. Tou-san led me inside and I was surprised how big the building was. I ducked behind my father as chunin and jonin in official flak vests passed us in the hallway. Everyone here felt so much bigger than I was. Eventually, tou-san bent down to lift me into his arms. I buried my face in his shoulder.

I heard a door slide open and tou-san stopped walking. I looked up, turning to look over my shoulder. I gave a little hiccupy gasp at the man sitting at the desk before us. 

Umino Iruka smiled brightly at my father. “Isamu-san! It’s good to see you. How’s Ruki-senpai?”

“Doing well, she’s excited to get back to doing missions. She waited until Kourubi-chan was old enough for the academy, but she’s gotten a bit impatient now that the time’s come.”

“Ah, I see. And hello, Kourubi-chan. I’m Umino Iruka. I’ll be your teacher at the academy, okay?” His smile was softer as he spoke to me, sweeter. 

I nodded a little and lifted my hand from my father’s jacket to wave shyly. “Hello, sensei.”

“I have to talk with your father for a while,” Iruka explained softly. “There are some other kids on the playground. Most of them will be in your class. Would you like to play with them while I talk with your father?”

My classmates? I nodded enthusiastically. Tou-san set me on the ground and Iruka pointed me towards a side door that led out into the yard. I scurried out, blinking against the bright sunlight. 

The playground was little more than a swing set and a set of monkey bars, but there was lots of space to run all over and that’s probably what young ninja needed most. 

They apparently also needed supervision because two children were already fighting in the middle of the yard. A tiny girl in wavy blonde pigtails shoved a boy twice her size to the ground. Her pretty purple tights were torn and dirty, but she smirked triumphantly over her apparent victory.

“That’s what you get for picking on someone younger than you!” the girl spat. She turned to the boy behind her with hair so blonde it was nearly white. “You okay?”

The boy nodded, tugging at the hem of his cat eared hoodie. His eyes were red and puffy from crying and his knee had a scuff on it. He looked like he’d been pushed down. I frowned, digging into the pocket of my sundress for my handkerchief. I wandered over, the blonde girl eyeing me warily. 

“Let me see your knee,” I demanded. The boy flinched back but kicked out his leg a little, holding onto the blonde girl for balance. I knelt down and wrapped my handkerchief around his knee in some sort of makeshift bandage. “You need to let Iruka-sensei see it later. He’ll make it better. But that’s better, right?”

The boy nodded. I stood again, hands going to my hips. “I’m Kourubi! What’s your name?”

“R-Ryou,” the boy squeaked. 

“I’m Mai,” the girl said, matching my hands-on-hips pose. 

“Did that big kid hurt you, Ryou?” I asked.

Ryou nodded. “He said…he said I can’t marry Kiba because boys can’t marry boys. A-and that I was stupid for thinking I could.” Ryou hiccupped, fat tears rolling down his face.

“So I punched him!” Mai said proudly, crossing her arms and grinning broadly.

I kept my eyes on Ryou. “What did Kiba say?”

“O-oh, I didn’t say it to Kiba,” he muttered. “I couldn’t do that.”

“Why not? If you wanna marry him, you should tell him! We’ll have the wedding right here!” I cheered. “I always wanted to go to a wedding!”

Ryou’s cheeks turned a pretty pink and he tugged harder at the hem of his hoodie. He glanced over his shoulder at where Kiba (who even at five had those odd red triangle fang things on his cheeks) was swinging with Shikamaru and Chouji. 

Mai frowned thoughtfully. “We’d need a priest to make it all official.”

Ryou gave Mai a panicked look. My grin only broadened. I looked around the playground, looking for anyone who might play preacher for us. I found Sakura sitting on her own, looking lonely. It really was lucky I had previous knowledge of who everyone was…except Mai and Ryou, but I guess you can’t know everything. I grabbed Mai and Ryou’s hands and tugged them her way. She looked up at our approach, looking confused and maybe a little scared.

“Hey, we’re trying to have a wedding,” I told her. “Will you be the priest for us?”

“W-why can’t one of you be the priest?” Ryou asked. 

I snorted. “Because we’re the bridesmaids, duh!”

Sakura looked between the three of us from under her pink fringe. Eventually, she nodded shyly. “B-but, I don’t know what priests say at weddings…”

“We’ll figure that out once we get the groom!” Mai dismissed with a wave of her hand. She reached down to tug at Sakura’s hand. “C’mon! We gotta get the groom now!”

The three of us giggled and rushed over to the swings, Mai and I still dragging Ryou behind us. We stood in front of the swings until Kiba stopped swinging, kicking dirt and pebbles everywhere as he came to a stop. Shikamaru, who wasn’t even actually swinging in the first place, stared at us with a bored expression. Chouji just kept eating his cookies.

“What?” Kiba asked. “There are other swings. I’m not giving up mine.”

“No, it’s not about that!” I said with a shake of my head. “Ryou has something he wants to say to you!” I pushed Ryou forward. He gave me a frankly venomous look over his shoulder for my betrayal. 

Kiba looked at Ryou expectantly, being surprisingly patient about the whole thing. Ryou scuffed his shoe against the dirt and tugged once again at his hoodie. His face was bright pink and his eyes darted all over. 

“Umm…uh…well, I, uh,” Ryou stuttered. I felt bad for the boy. I’d never met anyone this terribly shy…but then again this was my first time meeting anyone my age that wasn’t part of the clan. 

Mai rolled her eyes and shouted. “He wants to marry you!”

Kiba blinked in surprise. He looked from Mai, to Ryou, to Sakura, and me and back to Ryou. 

“Yeah, okay. He’s kinda pretty.”

I squealed, bouncing up and down, the bird pattern at the bottom of my white sundress twisting this way and that. 

“Good! We’ve already got a priest!” Mai slapped at Sakura’s back, knocking her forward. “You just need two groomsmen.”

Kiba glanced at Shikamaru and Chouji. Shikamaru sighed loudly but Chouji seemed tickled pink about the whole idea. 

“Wait!” Sakura yelped suddenly. “We don’t have rings! At weddings they exchange rings!”

I frowned, Mai and the others mimicking my expression. Sakura was right, we couldn’t have a proper wedding without Kiba and Ryou exchanging rings. 

“Um…” we all turned at the small voice. Standing there with two small, seemingly freshly plucked daisies in his hand was Naruto. He held out the two flowers. “You can use these, if you want. You can make them into rings, right?”

I grinned brightly at him. “That’s perfect. But I don’t know how to do that.”

“I do!” Chouji volunteered. “Ino showed me the other day.” 

“Perfect!” I cheered. I turned back to Naruto. “You can be the ring bearer!”

Naruto’s expression brightened, delighted at being invited to play. His expression quickly fell, however, his brows furrowing in confusion. “What does the ring bearer do?”

Mai stepped in to explain. “You carry the rings down the aisle in front of the bride. And you hang on to them until the priest calls for the rings to be exchanged. Then you give them to the bride and groom and they put them on each other’s fingers.”

Naruto nodded, his bright blue eyes determined in his new endeavor. “Just watch me! I’ll be the best ring bearer ever!”

“So what do we do?” Chouji asked, already looping the daisies into rings.

“The groomsmen and bridesmaids walk down the aisle together to get everyone ready for the bride!” I explained. I latched onto Shikamaru’s arm so he couldn’t slink away. “I’ll go with Shikamaru and Mai will go with Chouji. Okay?”

Mai side eyed Chouji as the boy handed Naruto back the daisy rings. She shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”

“Trust me,” Kiba said with a grin. “You’re getting the better end of the deal.”

Shikamaru glared at his friend but sighed, already resigned to his role in the whole thing. It was decided that the wedding would happen under the monkey bars, as they were the closest things we had to a wedding arch. Sakura stood under it, bouncing excitedly. Kiba stood casually next to her, hands stuffed into his pockets. Mai and Chouji walked down the ‘aisle’ first (honestly, it was just the short distance from the swings to the monkey bars) and Shikamaru and I followed after them. And by followed after them I mean I pretty much dragged Shikamaru the whole way. I hadn’t realized he’d be a lazy ass even as a child. 

I unlatched my arm from Shikamaru’s at the end of our little walk and immediately turned once I was at Mai’s side to watch Naruto carry the daisy rings with an almost comically serious expression on his face. Kiba snickered at the expression, earning him a sharp elbow in the side from Sakura. Naruto came to stand by Sakura, his expression never changing.

Finally, it was Ryou’s turn. He shuffled slowly along, staring at his feet. Despite the fact the weather was merely cool, his hood was up, cat ears pointing up in the air. Kiba stuck his hand out, as Ryou got closer, waiting for Ryou to take a hold of it. Ryou finally did reach out and slip his hand into Kiba’s his face going far redder than I’d ever seen anyone’s face go. 

Sakura cleared her through primly. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together today to witness the joining of these two in holy mattress.”

“Matrimony, Sakura-chan,” I corrected gently. 

“Oh!” Sakura squeaked. “Right, holy matrimony! Um…Naruto, the rings.”

Naruto stepped forward, handing a ring to Kiba and Ryou each. They turned towards each other. 

“Um…do you promise to love each other and take care of each other and keep each other safe?” 

Ryou nodded, stuttering out an ‘I do’. Kiba’s response was a little stronger, more confident, if not wholly invested in what was actually happening. Sakura, on the whole, seemed pretty pleased.

“Okay, Ryou, put the ring on Kiba. Kiba, put your ring on Ryou.” Sakura waited until the two of them had done so before breaking out into a smile and spreading her arms wide in some kind of grand gesture. “I now pronounce you husband and um…other husband, I guess. You may now kiss each other!”

Kiba looked extraordinarily unsure about the whole kissing thing. Ryou peeked up at him hopefully from under his hood. I glared at Kiba until he got the message and lean forward to place a tiny peck on Ryou’s lips. 

“YAY! Now you’re married!” Mai shouted, throwing up her hands. Her hands immediately fell to the side. “Now what?”

“I dunno.” Sakura shrugged. “What do married people do?”

“Have kids?” Chouji offered.

“They’re too young to have kids,” Shikamaru reminded.

“Tou-san sits on the roka a lot and watches the birds in the garden,” I said thoughtfully, tapping my chin. “And kaa-san cooks all the time. And kaa-san says they used to go on missions together all the time.”

“Sounds boring,” Naruto muttered. “Well, except the missions part.”

“KOURUBI-CHAAANNNNN!” My head snapped around to see my father standing in the doorway. He grinned at me and waved. Time to go.

“I gotta go,” I told my new friends. “But I’ll see you soon, yeah?”

“Yeah!” they chorused, giving me smiles of various sizes. 

I turned and ran back towards my father. I couldn’t wait to tell him all about the wedding.


	2. The School of Hard Shuriken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I just wanted to say thank you for the positive reception I've gotten for this little side project. So here I am, back with another chapter! I hope you all enjoy!

The shinobi academy was…surprisingly boring the first few years. Basic education came first: reading, writing, basic arithmetic, history, and a little science. These all took priority. The only time you could tell they were training us to be shinobi was during what they considered ‘physical education.’ Essentially, they lined us up outside and had us practicing katas. It wasn’t all that different from what I remembered normal school to be like from Before. 

It wasn’t until we were seven that they really started training us. Science class changed into lectures on basic ninjutsu. Reading class was swapped out for a girl’s only class about kunoichi specific topics like flower arranging. 

This was also when taijutsu training began to involve sparring. 

 

I stood between Mai and Ryou, watching as Naruto once again got knocked to the ground by Uchiha Sasuke. A group of boys near me began to laugh. I watched the frustration and embarrassment dance over Naruto’s face for a brief moment before stalking over to the closest laughing boy and shoving him. Hard.

“Don’t laugh at him!” I shouted. “How would you feel if I laughed at you even when you were doing your best?”

The boy stumbled but quickly regained his balance and scowled at me. “Doesn’t matter how good he’s doing. If he challenges Uchiha, he’s gonna lose. No one can beat Uchiha, that’s a fact!” 

I glared at the boy. “I bet I could beat him.”

The boys only laughed harder. “Yeah, right!”

“Just watch me! I’ll beat him! And when I do…” I pointed dramatically at the boy’s face. “You aren’t allowed to laugh at Naruto any more!”

“Fine,” he agreed, a smirk on his face. “IF you beat Uchiha.”

I nodded firmly and turned to Iruka-sensei, who gave a put-upon sigh. “In a little bit, Kourubi-chan. Let Sasuke rest for a moment first.”

So I waited, arms crossed and a determined pout on my face, for Iruka-sensei to decide Sasuke was rested enough. He called us into the ring and I had to keep myself from running to my place. I had nothing against Sasuke himself, if I was honest. It was the people around him that I didn’t like. But beating Sasuke had to be the fastest way to get the others to change, right? Right. 

“Begin.”

Sasuke struck first, throwing a punch towards my face. I caught his fist and tugged him forward, slamming an open palm into his stomach. He broke from my grip and kicked at me. I ducked under his foot, sweeping the leg he was using to balance out from under him. Technically, we hadn’t learned how to use sweep kicks yet. But sweep kicks were a major part of the Karasuno taijutsu, which kaa-san had been teaching me ever since I could walk. 

Sasuke’s back hit the dirt.

“Kourubi-chan wins,” Iruka informed us. “Kourubi-chan, help Sasuke up and form the seal of reconciliation.”

I took a step towards Sasuke and held out my hand to him. He glared at me and smacked my hand away, standing on his own. I stepped back, extending my hand downwards, two fingers extended, in the seal of reconciliation. I waited, a tight frown on my lips, for Sasuke to respond. 

“Sasuke,” Iruka prompted gently. 

Sasuke scowled but wrapped his index and middle fingers around mine. He held it just long enough to satisfy Iruka before stalking away, his pride obviously injured. 

 

Returning to the classroom, I found the desk I usually sat at piled high with other people’s things and my school supplies dumped onto the floor. I looked up at the person who normally sat next to me, a dark haired girl whose name I never really learned. 

“What’s this?” I asked, trying to keep the dread filling my stomach from showing on my face.

“You can’t sit there anymore,” the girl sneered. “But there’s an open seat by Naruto, since you like him so much.”

I stooped down to pick up my things, only to be bumped into from behind, hard. I tumbled forward, my head slamming into the side of the desk. I could feel the tears pickling the corners of my eyes as the pain radiated over my scalp. 

“Hey! That’s not fucking cool!” I turned to see Mai standing behind me. She held another girl by the collar of her shirt, the girl’s feet dangling just above the ground. 

“Where do you get off doing shit like that?” Mai hissed, her lips twisted into a snarl. 

“Mai-chan! Put her down! You’ll get in trouble if Iruka-sensei sees you or hears you saying those kinds of words!” Ryou whispered nervously, glancing back towards the classroom door. 

“I don’t care. These girls think it’s cool to try and seriously hurt someone outside of sparring? Who do they think they are?”

I took a deep, shuddering breath and gathered my things in my arms. I stood, schooling my expression as well as I could. This wasn’t the first time I’d been bullied. It’d happened fairly frequently Before. 

“Thank you, Mai-chan,” I said as evenly as I could. “But that’s not necessary.”

Mai gave me an appraising look before dropping the girl on her butt. I turned back to the dark haired girl. 

“Your gross perfume always gave me a headache anyway.”

I moved to sit in the open seat beside Naruto. He looked at me curiously from over his arms as he lay across his desk, but said nothing. If Iruka noticed the change in seating (and his furrowed brows and concerned frown said he certainly did) he didn’t mention it. 

 

Mai had frightened the other girls enough that none of them tried anything again that day. She and Ryou made sure to stay behind with me after classes were let out for the day, just in case. We walked through the Academy’s double doors together. I could see a severe looking woman in a fancy yukata standing at the gate, her silvery blonde hair pulled back in some intricate updo she never could have fixed by herself. Ryou’s happy smile immediately fell away, his whole body language changing into something demure. 

“I need to go,” he muttered, running towards the woman without another word. The woman reached out to take his hand in a tight grip as he approached, tugging him away from the Academy. 

Mai watched him go passively before turning to me. “Want me to walk you home?”

I glanced towards the large tree in the middle of the schoolyard. Naruto sat on the swing that hung from the tree’s thick branches, kicking at the dirt. My grip on my schoolbag tightened. I turned back to Mai and shook my head. “I’ll be okay. You go on ahead.”

Mai glanced over her shoulder at Naruto as well, a knowing look in her eyes, before wandering off. 

I walked slowly over to Naruto, coming to stand in front of him. He looked up as my shadow covered the dirt he was kicking at, his too blue eyes wide with confusion and just a little bit of distrust.

“It’s more fun when you’re actually swinging,” I informed him. 

Naruto scowled. “If I wanted to swing, I’d swing. But I don’t wanna, so I’m not!”

“Well, if you don’t wanna swing, do you wanna come have dinner at my house?”

Naruto nearly fell off the swing. I giggled as he tried to right himself, unable to stop myself. His shock quickly morphed into suspicion. I supposed I couldn’t blame him; not very many people were nice to him just to be nice. 

“Why are you being so nice to me today?” he asked.

I smiled. “Because I still remember when you played Ring bearer at Ryou and Kiba’s wedding.” 

Naruto’s gaze dropped to his scuffed up knees, hesitating for a moment. Finally, he stood from the swing, looking up at me shyly through his sunshiny blonde fringe. My smile only grew wider as I reached out to take his hand and lead him back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terribly sorry if this wasn't the sunshine and rainbows you were expecting, given the first chapter. But trust me: I have plans. Lots of plans. And I'll get to them eventually, I promise. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the comments!


	3. Kourubi Learned How To Mama Bear From the Best

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter for everyone. There probably won't be too many more of Kourubi and the others as kiddos, but who knows. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Let me know what you think in the comments.

“Hey, Kourubi-chan?”

I continued walking, humming softly at Naruto. The only other sound was our footsteps against the dirt road…plus the footsteps of whoever was following us.

“Those guys are following us…and they look mad,” Naruto hissed. 

I didn’t bother looking back. The heavy, aggressive sounding footsteps behind us sounded like they were getting closer. I squeezed Naruto’s hand. 

“When I say go, we run,” I whispered.

Naruto nodded, glancing over his shoulder once more.

“Don’t let go of my hand,” I said with a grin. “GO!”

We took off. The men behind us gave a shout of anger. I practically tugged Naruto behind me, leading him home. We were close, I could tell from the sudden uptick in the blackbird population. The footsteps of the men chasing us seemed to get closer. Would they actually risk trespassing on Karasuno land? Could I take that chance with Naruto? I gripped his hand tighter and ran a little faster. 

“Kourubi-sama!”

I looked up into the sky to see a small black bird with white along its wings. Shida! Kaa-san’s bird! Of course kaa-san would send Shida out to look for me. I was late after all. 

“Shida! Those men chasing us…!”

Shida’s bright eyes shifted to stare hard at the men following us. Without another word, the bird dove at them, screaming loudly in harsh, high-pitched bird sounds. The men shouted and cursed and I took the opportunity to tug Naruto through the open gates of the Karasuno compound. My mother was standing just inside and we came to an abrupt halt as we ran into her legs. 

“Kourubi-chan? What on earth is going on?”

Naruto flinched at the volume of kaa-san’s voice and I tugged him close to me, never letting go of his hand. 

“Kaa-san, is it alright if Naruto-kun stays for dinner?” I asked, my expression set in determination, daring kaa-san to say no. 

Kaa-san eyes went wide as her gaze shifted from my defiant face to Naruto as he cowered behind me to the gate as the men stopped just on the other side of the threshold. Shida fluttered down to land on the gate, dropping a load of excrement on the men. Understanding flickered through my mother’s eyes and she squared her shoulders. Her eyes blazed as she committed the faces of each of the men to memory. 

“Of course he can stay.”

 

Naruto and I sat across from each other at the small kitchen table as kaa-san and tou-san wandered about the kitchen finishing dinner preparations. Tou-san had said nothing when Naruto shuffled into the house behind me, looking like a rabbit that was going to bolt at even the tiniest of sudden movements. But his eyes had hardened when kaa-san told him what she’d witnessed at the gates. 

Tou-san set two bowls of katsudon and small bowls of miso soup in front of us. Naruto’s eyes went wide and for a moment I thought he was going to faint at the mere sight of the food. Kaa-san came in just behind tou-san with bowls of food for the two of them. Naruto only barely waited for my parents to sit down before he practically shouted ‘thanks for the meal’ and tore into his katsudon. 

“This is really good, oba-san!” Naruto gushed, looking at my mother with sparkling blue eyes.

Kaa-san seemed a bit confused by Naruto’s enthusiasm under her delight that he was fond of her food. “Thank you, Naruto-chan. But it’s just a simple katsudon. Have you never had it before?”

“Nope,” Naruto shook his head, his eyes dimming a bit. “Mostly I just eat instant ramen.”

“Do you not have someone at home who can cook for you?” Kaa-san asked, her tone getting only a little bit steelier. 

Naruto shook his head again, staring down at his food. “No, I live all by myself.”

A hand slammed down on the table, causing me and Naruto to jump in fear. We turned to see my mother’s eyes blazing and her hand flat on the table. She inhaled deeply and forced a smile to her face as she turned to Naruto.

“Naruto-chan, you’ll be coming home with Kourubi-chan from now on, okay?” Naruto nodded emphatically, not wanting to argue with my mother given the state she was in. Satisfied, kaa-san turned to tou-san, her forced smile becoming something truly terrifying as her eyes hardened. “Dear, we’re going to have a long talk with the Hokage in the morning.”

“Of course, dear,” Tou-san agreed, his voice icy in its calm. 

Naruto was shooed off to take a bath, one of my too big sleep shirts tucked under his arms. Kaa-san sighed heavily as she watched him go, her earlier fire dimmed. 

“I know what I said but maybe I acted too rashly,” she muttered to my father as they washed the dishes together, apparently unaware I could still hear them. “I know we talked about moving Kourubi into the larger room, but we haven’t even started clearing it out yet. I refuse to make him sleep on the couch like some freeloading cousin! But I have no idea what to do in the mean time.”

“My bed is big enough,” I said, catching their attention. “He can sleep with me.”

Kaa-san looked uncertain. “Are you sure, Kourubi-chan?”

I nodded. “Naruto is my friend. I want him to be happy, so I can share as long as I need to.”

Kaa-san stepped away from the dishes she was drying to ruffle her hands through my hair and give me a gentle kiss on my forehead. “You’re a good girl, Kourubi-chan.”

 

Naruto stood at the edge of my bed, my sleep shirt hanging precariously off his thin shoulders. My shirts were big enough to be considered nightgowns on me, but they practically swallowed him. How had I never noticed how small he was? Kaa-san pulled back the blankets of my bed, patting the mattress and smiling at us.

“All right, little ones. Lay down so I can tuck you in.”

I slipped into bed automatically, settling myself against the pillow. Naruto hesitated, his lips drawn into a tight, thin line. Kaa-san called his name softly, which seemed to startle him out of his reverie. He clamored onto the bed, settling himself on the other pillow a good distance away from me. Kaa-san shook her head fondly and pulled the blankets up and over us. 

“Good night, little ones,” she whispered, placing a kiss to each of our cheeks in turn. 

Naruto went stiff at the contact, his eyes wide. Kaa-san didn’t say a word about as she left the room, closing the door behind her until only a small crack was left open. I turned over to watch Naruto in the dim light. He was trembling. Was he…crying?

“Naruto?”

Naruto flinched again, and in the faint light streaming in from the door, I saw the tear fall down his cheek. I scooted closer to him, reaching out to take his hand that had been tightly fisted in the blanket. 

“It’s okay. It’ll all still be here in the morning…I’ll still be here in the morning.”

The tears came freely now and Naruto turned to burry his face in my neck. One hand clasped tightly in his and my other arm wrapped around him, I held onto him until his sobbing stopped and we slipped quietly into sleep. 

 

Naruto stood beside me in the doorway to the kitchen, watching kaa-san rush about. His clothes from the day before were still dirty, so tou-san had borrowed some clothes from a cousin of mine (how distantly that cousin was related he hadn’t mentioned). It was so strange to see Naruto in something that didn’t have orange as its primary color. The muted blues and dark blacks just seem to make his hair brighter. Still, I missed the orange, if only because it was so familiar. 

Kaa-san appeared before us, two bentos in her hands, one wrapped in an orange kerchief, the other in a deep wine red that I had long since learned had been my assigned ‘signature color’. 

“Let’s go, little ones,” she chirped. “I have a few things I need to discuss with Iruka-sensei before I meet with the Hokage.”

She took us each by the hand as we left the house. There were whispers from the villagers we passed, but kaa-san kept her head high. I tried to mimic her, tried to ignore the whispers and the scornful looks. But the way Naruto scowled defiantly even as he drifted closer to kaa-san made me glare at them all. One old woman jumped back when my gaze met hers as she whispered to a younger woman. Guess my oddly colored eyes were good for something.

Iruka was standing outside the academy’s gate, greeting the students with a smile as they wander in unhurried. He looked surprise to see us as we approached, his eyes going straight to Naruto and the way my mother clutched his hand. Kaa-san smiled warmly at him, releasing our hands to push us gently towards the gate. I reached out for Naruto’s hand instinctually. 

“Iruka-sensei,” kaa-san spoke gently but confidently, almost like a teacher would. “Naruto will be coming home with Kourubi from now on. If anyone tells you otherwise, you are to ignore them.”

“Ruki-senpai?” 

“It’s a shame I wasn’t aware of Naruto’s situation sooner,” kaa-san continued. “But he’s had you to look after him for a while now, yes? Thank you for that. I know you couldn’t do much, but I’m grateful for what you have done. You’re welcome to visit him at the compound anytime. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t do anything more for him just because we’ve snatched him up.” Her smile was bright, but there was a barely hidden anger just beneath it. Not at Iruka-sensei, no, at everyone else. 

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, my husband and I have a meeting with the Hokage and I don’t want to be late.”

Understanding dawned on Iruka-sensei’s face just before an almost triumphant smile flashed across his lips. “Of course, Ruki-senpai. I hope it turns out well.”

 

I sat next to Naruto once again, not bothering to try and take back my old seat. Mai and Ryou sat in the row in front of us, Mai glaring down anyone who came close. Most of the time, it worked well enough. Kiba and Shikamaru and Chouji didn’t seem to mind much, especially when lunchtime came around and they started asking questions when Naruto and I pulled out nearly identical bentos. 

Recess, however, brought its own problems. Naruto and I sat on the swings, just talking. Naruto was a curious kid, and he had lots of questions about my clan, especially the birds. Our conversation was interrupted by a group of girls marching straight up to us. I recognized Ino, who looked mildly displeased with the whole scenario, and Sakura, who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else. The group was led by a girl who’s name I didn’t really know (Koharu? Haruko? Haruka? Something like that). She pushed her thick-framed glasses up, a nasty smirk on her lips.

“Hey, Naruto, my mom says you’re an orphan. Is that true?” Naruto and I stiffened on the swings. I looked over to Sakura and Ino. Ino was frowning heavily and Sakura looked horrified as she realized what was happening.

“So what if it is?” Naruto growled, his voice loud and rough. 

“Well, my mom says that if you haven’t been adopted by now, that means no one wants you.”

Now, I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew I was smashing my foot into the girl’s face to the sound of her cohorts’ screams. Naruto gasped behind me as I watched a crack spread over the lens of the girl’s glasses. I couldn’t keep my foot up indefinitely, and as it began to fall forward it pushed the girl down with it. I stared blankly down at her as she fell, feeling something akin to shock. 

“What the hell, Kourubi?!” one of the other girls shrieked. Iruka-sensei was rushing towards us, as well as most of the other kids. 

“She deserved it for saying something that awful!” I shouted without thinking. “Besides, she’s wrong! Naruto is joining my clan! Kaa-san went to yell at the Hokage this morning to make it happen. He’s going to be a Karasuno, and anyone who messes with him from now on is gonna get bird poop on all the things they love!” 

“What did she say, Kourubi-chan?” Iruka demanded, looming over all of us. He had his stern teacher look on his face, that one that usually scared a confession out of anyone.

“S-she said that if Naruto hadn’t been adopted b-by now that meant no one wanted him.” We all turned to stare at Sakura. Her entire body was trembling, just like her voice, but her eyes were bright with bravery. Even Ino, who’d spent more time with Sakura than anyone else, looked surprised. But her shock faded into a soft, proud smile that she quickly hid behind her hand as the other girls began to shriek at Sakura. 

Mai pushed past the other kids to stand between Sakura and her supposed friends. She glared them all down. “If you didn’t want to deal with the consequences of your words, you shouldn’t have said them. Now back off.”

Iruka sighed, a heavy frown on his face as he lifted the girl I’d kicked up off the ground. “C’mon, let’s get you to the nurse’s office.”

“Isn’t Kourubi in trouble?”

Iruka glanced over his shoulder at me. “Her mother will be notified of her behavior.”

In other words, I wasn’t in trouble at all.

 

Sakura was kicked out of her desk just like I had been the day before. Mai scooted Ryou over one so that Sakura could take a seat between them. What surprised me, however, was that Ino willingly packed up her things to take a seat near Shikamaru and Chouji instead. That was about as close to condemning the girls for what they did I would get out of her. Ino would never flat out say the girls were wrong for what they did, she wanted to keep her social standing after all. But if Ino had separated herself from the group, then the rest of the lackeys were bound to understand something they’d done had pissed her off. 

Kaa-san was at the gate when lessons had ended for the day, a bright smile on her face and a small suitcase in her hand. 

“I heard you had a little trouble today during recess,” she said as Naruto and I ran up to her.

“Someone said something mean to Naruto so I stood up for him,” I explained vaguely, hand clutching at Naruto’s.

“I didn’t know standing up for someone meant stepping on someone’s face,” kaa-san mused, her smile never leaving her face. 

“Is Kourubi in trouble?” 

Kaa-san and I turned to Naruto. His eyes were bright and defiant, like he was ready to jump to my defense the moment my mother tried to dole out any sort of punishment. 

Kaa-san set the suitcase on the ground and crouched down to look Naruto in the eye. “I’m disappointed she decided that violence was the best way to deal with this conflict, but no. She’s not in trouble. I’m very proud of her for standing up for her friend…or should I say her clansman.”

Naruto’s eyes went wide. “You mean it?”

She nodded and stood, pulling out a folded sheet of paper from her pocket. “The Hokage made it official this morning. Isamu-tou-san and I are your new guardians. Which means you’ll get to stay with us and eat meals with us and train with us if you’d like.”

Naruto shuffled his feet, nervously looking at the ground for some reason. He blushed shyly, peering up at kaa-san through his bangs. “Does…does that mean I should call you kaa-chan?”

Kaa-san’s bright grin softened and she cupped Naruto’s cheeks in her hands, lifting his face so she could meet his eyes properly. “I would love it if you called me kaa-chan.”

I expected Naruto to cheer loudly, to wrap his arms around kaa-san and bowl her over. Instead, his eyes shimmered and big, fat tears rolled down his face. He sniffled quietly, desperately rubbing at his face to wipe the tears away. Kaa-san pressed a kiss to his forehead and let him cry. When most of his crying was done, she stood once more and picked up the suitcase she’d brought with her. It was at that point I realized that it was probably full of Naruto’s things, what little he had. Kaa-san reached out and took Naruto’s free hand. 

“Now, what do you two want for dinner?” she asked, her voice light and cheery.

“Ebi tempura?”

“Ramen!”

Kaa-san laughed breezily. “I’ll see what I can do.”


	4. Holding Food Hostage is the Fastest Way to Make Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello! It's been a while since I updated one of these, hasn't it? Well, I don't write these as far ahead as I do the main story, so it's sort of understandable that these didn't get updated during Nanowrimo. Anyway, this one is a little longer than the previous chapters, I think. Let me know what you think in the comments! Enjoy!

Sasuke didn’t show up to school one day. Or the next day, or the day after. Whispers began floating around the compound, quiet enough so that people felt safe talking about it, but loud enough that I could hear. They all talked about the same thing.

The Uchiha clan was gone. 

Tou-san and kaa-san didn’t like to bring up work at home. The most they’d ever say is that they’d be gone on a mission, and would return at some appointed time. What they spoke of about the Uchiha was said in hushed whispers while Naruto and I were out of the room. 

Tou-san nearly dropped his rice when I asked what had happened to them at dinner. My parents shared a hesitant look. 

“Sasuke hasn’t been to school in a few days,” I said, trying to push the subject. “And I’ve heard people say that Itachi did something bad.”

“Well…” my mother started.

“Ruki, really they don’t need to hear this,” tou-san interrupted.

“They’re going to find out anyway, seeing as the old birds like to gossip more than they like to breathe,” kaa-san argued. She turned back to me, a distinctly uncomfortable look on her face. “Sasuke’s big brother, Itachi-kun, killed his clan.”

I knew this, of course I knew this. This was Sasuke’s inciting incident after all, one of the most important things to happen in the story. And I knew, at least in part, the reason behind it. But I couldn’t just come out and say it. That would be crazy. And not helpful in the slightest. But, given that I was a child again, I did have an advantage. What was that saying again? From the mouths of babes?

“Did the Hokage tell him to kill them?” I asked, voice as innocent as I could make it.

Tou-san choked on his tea. A dull clattering sound filled the empty spaces between his coughs as Naruto and kaa-san dropped their chopsticks.

“Why would you say that, Kourubi-chan?” kaa-san asked, her voice louder than she probably wanted it to be. Blame it on the shock.

“Cause he was ANBU,” I explained in that simple way children could explain anything. “And the Hokage tells them to kill people all the time.”

True, it wasn’t actually the Hokage who set Itachi on his family, be he certainly hadn’t stopped him. And the Hokage was easier to blame than Danzo. It would lead down the right path if anyone actually decided to investigate the matter thoroughly. 

Not that they would investigate anything based on the word of a seven year old. But parents had a habit of telling their friends about all the crazy things their kids said. And if what I said managed to wheedle its way into the heads of enough shinobi, I could only imagine what kind of reaction it would get when the truth finally came out. 

That would be a satisfaction that I would not feel for some time.

 

Sasuke returned to class after about a week of absence looking paler than usual and tired in a way that I felt in my bones. He also looked far angrier than usual, which faded into depressive acceptance when lunchtime came. He had two large, plain onigiri to eat. They looked store bought. 

“Kaa-san?” My legs swung absently, dangling just over the kitchen floor. “Do you think you could make some extra for Sasuke? He hasn’t been eating good lunches.”

Kaa-san paused in her slicing of green onions. She took the time to glance my way, her expression soft and almost a little proud. “Sure, Kourubi-chan. Why don’t you pick out a handkerchief to wrap the bento in?”

The next day Naruto and I went to school with three bento: one wrapped in orange, one in wine red, and one in dark navy blue. I kept it well hidden until lunchtime (or at least I thought it was well hidden). Iruka dismissed us to eat outside, since it was a nice day and all. Sasuke sat by himself, up against a wall of the Academy. His fangirls sat some small distance away, close enough that they could observe him and giggle when he glared at them, but far enough away that they could reasonably say they weren’t bothering him. 

The looks they gave us as we march straight up to him were probably the best part about the whole thing. Well, Naruto and I marched straight up to him. Mai, Ryou, Sakura, and even Shikamaru, Kiba, and Chouji, though they had come with us, hung back. Sasuke stared up at us, his onigiri half way to his mouth. 

“What do you want?” he asked tersely. 

“I just figured you’d want some decent food for lunch,” I said, holding out the bento box wrapped in navy blue. “My mom made extra for you.”

“I have food,” Sasuke snapped. “I don’t need your mom’s crummy food.”

I was about to say something along the lines of how home made food is better than store bought stuff when Naruto jumped in instead.

“Ruki-kaa-chan’s food isn’t crummy! It’s the best food in the world! And it’s wasted on you if you can’t appreciate it!”

If only kaa-san could hear that. Well, actually, she heard it pretty often. Naruto never let a meal go by without telling kaa-san how much he loved her food. Sasuke looked like he was going to argue back, but instead of letting him, I simply stepped forward and set the bento box down beside him. He flinched back in surprise, his gaze bouncing back and forth between me and the lunch.

“Whether you eat it or not is your choice,” I said. “But I would like the box and handkerchief back before the end of the day.”

Sasuke was in the classroom when we returned from lunch, the bento I’d given him resting on my desk. It was lighter when I lifted it to put it away. When we got home, we found it was empty. 

From that point on, kaa-san started packing three lunches, one each for the two of us, and one for Sasuke. Eventually, Sasuke gave up bringing those store bought onigiri, coming to expect the bento to be set in front of him before class started. It fixed the problem of him not eating properly, but that didn’t stop the loneliness that he tried to hide. He was better at hiding it than Naruto, but I could see it. I could see it in the way he watched me rejoin my friends after setting the bento before him. I could see it in how he egged on Naruto’s hotheaded nearly one-sided rivalry. I had to fix it.

So one day, I didn’t deliver the bento box. Instead, I let it sit with mine in the small cubby under the desk. I could feel Sasuke’s eyes on me when he glanced up every so often during class. Naruto shot me confused looks as well, looks that morphed into glares if he caught Sasuke’s eye over my shoulder. 

Finally, it was lunchtime and we rushed out into the yard to eat in the fresh air. I took the two bento with me and when we sat to eat, I set Sasuke’s next to me, between myself and Ryou. Everyone watched anxiously as Sasuke practically stomped up to us. He looked at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to just hand over the box without his prompting. Because that was how things worked now.

Instead, I patted the grass next to me. “If you want the bento, you have to eat with us.”

I was well aware of the fact I was holding Sasuke’s lunch hostage. But it was the only way I could think of to get him to interact with us, or at least spend time with us.

“And what happens if I just take it?” he demanded.

“Then Mai-chan will kick your ass.”

Sasuke glanced over at Mai, who smirked. “Hell yeah I will.” 

Sasuke scowled, but obviously wasn’t a fan of getting beat up by Mai, who had the best taijutsu skills in the class. We’d heard some of the other teachers saying something about how she’d be a monster when she grew up. I didn’t know about that, but she’d certainly be strong. 

Sasuke sat, though he made sure to let all of us know he wasn’t happy with it with a huffy sound. He was quiet, rebuffing any attempts to include him in conversation with a nasty looking glare that was probably as much of a kekkei genkai for the Uchiha as the Sharingan was. 

When lunch was over he left the box where it was and stomped off back to the classroom. Naruto gave me an exasperated look.

“You’re not gonna keep doing this are you?”

I stared at him blankly.

He sighed. “Who am I kidding? Of course you are.”

“If you’re so invested, why don’t you just ask your parents to adopt him?” Ryou asked, nibbling on the last little bit of his pickles.

“Because they aren’t allowed to,” I said, not bothering to hide how upset I was about it. “I heard them talking a few nights ago. They’d gone to the Hokage after I told kaa-san Sasuke wasn’t eating right. He said…he said we can’t take care of both Naruto and Sasuke. The other clans would get mad.” 

“Why would the other clans get mad?” Mai asked.

I shrugged. “Idunno.” Which was a flat out lie. Naruto was the jinchuriki for the Kyuubi. Sasuke was the last surviving loyal member of the Uchiha clan. Putting both in the care of the Karasuno would look like a major political maneuver. I can only imagine that kaa-san got custody of Naruto though sheer force of will alone…that and the fact no one else wanted him. But Sasuke…if kaa-san kicked up a fuss about him…well, I wouldn’t be surprised if every major ninja clan in the village got involved in that debate. Clan politics were stupid and I hated them.

 

From then on, if Sasuke wanted kaa-san’s cooking he had to sit with us. He got less huffy about it as the days went by. He even participated in the conversations…if you count one-word answers to questions and calling Naruto an idiot after every other sentence Naruto said participating. It was better than nothing, I supposed. 

And while Sasuke was becoming more sociable, Naruto was becoming more skilled as a ninja. Kaa-san had taken it upon herself to teach Naruto the Karasuno style of taijutsu, something she’d been training me in since I could walk. He wasn’t great at it; Naruto wasn’t really built for the dance-like movements of the Karasuno taijutsu. He was a brawler by nature, unused to the finesse needed for our family’s style. But, I was always excited when he slipped a Karasuno maneuver into his spars at the academy. 

Kaa-san, in all her experience and wisdom, still couldn’t help Naruto with his clone jutsu. 

“I don’t understand it,” I heard her say to tou-san. “He has this massive chakra pool, but his control is abysmal. And I’m not sure where the problem starts.” She sighed. “If Mikoto were still here I might ask to borrow her eyes…”

She started him on chakra control exercises, which Naruto despised. But he wasn’t going to complain in front of kaa-san. No, if she said it would help him be a better ninja, then he’d do it without complaint…at least while she was watching. He complained plenty to me at bedtime. We’d long since been given separate rooms, but that didn’t stop Naruto from climbing into bed with me once tou-san and kaa-san had gone to bed. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night, he said, and worry that we had disappeared and left him alone. Having me there when he fell asleep helped to keep that from happening. 

Incidents like that happened less and less over time. By the time we were twelve, just about ready for graduation, Naruto was perfectly capable of sleeping through the night in his own bed. I found myself missing him at times. I was so used to having his warmth right there…and Naruto really did radiate warmth like sunshine. But we couldn’t share a bed forever, so I sucked it up and pulled my covers a little tighter around me. 

 

“Kaa-san says that we can have our friends over for a last minute study session before the exam,” I said the day before the graduation exam at lunch. “So you’re all invited.”

“Will there be food?” Choji asked through a mouthful of rice.

“Probably, I’ve never known kaa-san to not feed guests,” I answered, clicking my chopsticks together to emphasize my point. 

“Sure, we’ll be there, I guess,” Shikamaru agreed for the two of them. 

“I can’t,” Kiba grumbled. “Ma’s got me working in the kennels. One of the dogs is expecting puppies any day now.” 

Naruto seemed excited by the idea. “Invite us over when they’re born, I wanna see ‘em.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll come,” Sakura said with a small smile. “I’ll bring all my school books, too.”

“I don’t have anywhere I need to be,” Mai agreed.

Ryou hesitated. “I’ll come…but I don’t think I can stay for long.”

All eyes were on Sasuke now. He’d never accepted my offers of hanging out after school before. But this was the last time we’d have a chance to do so as classmates so maybe…

He sighed, sounding terribly put out by the whole thing. “As long as there’s food…”

“I’m still waiting for you to show the deredere side of your tsundere act,” Mai teased, pointing rudely at Sasuke with her chopsticks.

“I don’t know where you get your weird vocabulary,” Sasuke shot back. “But it’s obviously rotting your brain.”

Mai rolled her eyes. “Well, at least you acknowledge I have one.” 

 

We left the Academy together that day, waving goodbye to Kiba as he went off in the opposite direction. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Hinata and Shino walking together. The two of them didn’t have many friends, so they tended to stick together. I’d asked Hinata a few times if she’d wanted to join our lunch group, but she couldn’t seem to bring herself to. Forcing her wouldn’t have helped in getting her to come out of her shell, so I let her be. Convincing Sasuke to join the group had been a big enough effort, I wasn’t sure I could handle trying to get the both of them to open up. 

Kaa-san was waiting for us when we arrived, having set up a large, low table in the lounge for us. It was covered in snacks, most of them homemade, with just enough room for Sakura’s books. We spent a while talking about theory, worrying about what might be on the written exam. Well, Sakura and Shikamaru talked about theory, the rest of us just sort of listened and nodded along. The Academy taught us very little, in all honesty, about jutsu theory beyond the basics. Chakra was made up of physical and spiritual energy and hand signs helped to channel and mold chakra…blah blah blah. They didn’t even go into chakra affinities in the Academy, and how that affected the kind of jutsu that one could use. Civilian kids or kids without clans like Mai and Naruto were always screwed over when they graduated because of the lack of real education. Iruka-sensei did his damnedest, but he had a curriculum to stick to. Reminded me of school from Before. Shame there wasn’t ninja college. 

Ryou had to leave before we could begin practice for the practical exam, looking very squirrelly about the whole thing. I knew he didn’t want to leave, but he had little choice. His parents had always seemed very controlling, those few times I’d seen them. His mother had a fierce look about her that would not be out of place on a ninja clan matriarch. Ryou took after his mother in many ways, the same delicate face and white blonde hair, but he lacked the harshness. His eyes were warmer than hers. 

I chased away those thoughts as Mai tugged me out into the garden for a spar. If I knew very little about Ryou’s family, I knew nothing about Mai’s. No one came to pick her up at the end of the day. She didn’t speak about her family, but I knew she had one. She’d mentioned one day, when asked, that her father made her lunches for her. They were very nice lunches, always with some delicious sweet pastry hidden away in the box so no one would steal it. 

I was unsure of their reasons for becoming ninja. Naruto wanted to earn the respect of others, wanted to be Hokage. Most of the clan kids were in the Academy because they were expected to be, that’s how it was for me. Ryou’s parents didn’t want him to be a ninja. Mai’s parents didn’t seem to have an opinion, at least not one that she’d mentioned. 

Mai kicked my ass in the spar, she always did. She had terrible chakra control, Mizuki-sensei mentioned it often, but she could hand anyone their ass when it came to taijutsu. She fought dirty, grabbing hair and scratching with her prettily painted nails, and she punched harder than any boy in the class. One time, during a particularly odd lesson, she punched a dent in a frying pan. She held back when she fought me, because she liked me. She didn’t scratch, or punch as hard, or grab at my hair. For that, I was grateful. 

Naruto insisted on fighting Sasuke, which ended as you would probably imagine it would. Naruto tried, slipping a few Karasuno techniques that honestly surprised Sasuke, but Sasuke had better training. Naruto had years without proper guidance that Sasuke spent training under the Uchiha’s strict oversight. Even tou-san and kaa-san’s training couldn’t help Naruto bridge that gap. Not yet anyway. 

“Let’s try our jutsu now,” Sakura suggested. “They’re bound to test us on the Substitution, Transformation, and Clone jutsu.” 

The jutsu they taught to us in the Academy were basic, but essential. Any one of us could easily pull off a substitution or transformation. But when it came to the clone technique…

Naruto stared at his malformed clone, his eyes brimming with frustrated tears. There was just something about the clone jutsu that he just couldn’t grasp, no matter who explained it or how hard he tried. I wrapped my arms around him, letting him hide his face in my shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Naruto,” Sakura said encouragingly. “I’m sure sensei will let you pass if you do well enough on everything else. You’ve worked too hard for them not to.”

Naruto sniffled against my shirt and nodded. I squeezed him a little tighter.


	5. School's Out Forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, it's been too long since I've updated this little AU. Been working hard to keep up my update schedule for MFAW, so the AUs haven't gotten as much attention as I would like, but here it is! I hope you all enjoy.

I stood outside the academy, brand new headband clenched in my hand. Naruto was the last student to take the practical portion of the exam. The written portion of the exam hadn’t been too bad. We’d all convened in our usual spot at lunch to talk about it. He hadn’t answered all the questions perfectly…but if Iruka was grading exam he could possibly get partial credit. If Mizuki was the one grading his test…

Most of the others had already headed home, but I wasn’t about to leave without Naruto. So I waited. And I waited. Student after student came out with headband in hand to the cheers of friends and family. Tou-san and kaa-san were waiting at home. Something about having a surprise for us when he got back. 

Sasuke exited the building, his headband already in place on his forehead. I reached out and gripped his sleeve as he passed.

“What technique did they ask you to do?” I asked, nervousness causing my voice to waver. They’d asked me to perform the Clone Jutsu. Ryou and Mai had been asked for the same. I hadn’t been able to ask the others but If Sasuke had been asked for something else, there was still a chance that Naruto could pass the practical. 

Sasuke frowned a little heavier than usual. “Clone Jutsu.” 

My heart sank. Oh no. My fingers worried at the fabric of my headband. A hand settled on my shoulder, drawing my eyes up from the ground. Sasuke squeezed my shoulder.

“Don’t worry. He’s an idiot, but he’s always just barely managed to pull through,” Sasuke said, a certainty I admired in his tone. “He’ll be fine.”

Except Naruto wasn’t fine. Dread clenched in my gut when he stepped out of the academy building. I’d never seen him look so dejected. He didn’t even look up at me as he turned towards the giant tree in the schoolyard with the lone swing under it. I approached him slowly, watching him nudge himself back and forth on the swing. 

“Naruto?”

“Go away,” he grumbled. His eyes lingered on the headband in my hands before turning back to the dirt. 

“Naruto…it’s okay you didn’t pass. There’s always next time,” I said softly, slowly reaching out towards him. Wasn’t sure what I was gonna do, maybe place my hand on his shoulder, give him some kind of physical comfort. “We’ll just train harder and maybe we’ll figure out why the Clone Jutsu gives you such a hard time and-“

I was more shocked than anything when Naruto smacked my hand away, rage blazing in his too blue eyes. He’d never looked at me like that before. Never. 

“I said go away!”

And that was when the shock morphed into anger. The old part of me, the part of me that had lived many years more than the current me had, told me that I shouldn’t be angry with him. He was hurt. But the current me, the twelve year old me who still wasn’t quite so mature yet, argued that that didn’t matter. His hurt didn’t excuse that he’d hurt me. He’d channeled his anger and took it out on me. ME! Who’d only ever wanted to help him and make him feel loved and…

“FINE!” I shouted, my own anger boiling over. “Sit here and mope for all I care! Come home when you’re done taking your anger out on the people who care about you!”

And then I turned and ran. Ran away from Naruto and the academy. Ran with my new headband gripped so tight in my hand I thought the metal might warp. Ran all the way home, only recognizing how messed up that had been once I reached the gate. It was too late now. I couldn’t go back and apologize. He wouldn’t hear it. He was stubborn like that. But I was stubborn, too. I couldn’t be sure I would apologize if given the chance. 

Kaa-san and tou-san were waiting for me in the lounge when I slid open the door. Their looks of hopeful excitement fell away into concern and confusion when I entered the house alone, what could only be a very distressed look on my face. 

“Kourubi-chan, what happened?” kaa-san asked softly, coming around the couch to kneel in front of me. “Where’s Naruto-kun?”

“Naruto didn’t pass,” I told her, mumbling a little. “I tried to get him to come home…but he yelled at me. And then I yelled at him. I didn’t mean to kaa-san, it just came out!”

“Shhh, shhh, I know, sweetheart,” she cooed, reaching out to hug me gently. “And I’m sure he didn’t mean it either. Sometimes people who are hurting do things that make us feel bad because they don’t know what else to do. Naruto-kun will come home when he feels like it and I’m sure you’ll be the first one to welcome him back, won’t you.” 

I nodded into her shoulder, sniffling loudly.

“Until then, we have a surprise for you,” tou-san said.

I looked up from kaa-san’s shoulder and gasped. Tou-san held a large scroll in his hands. I knew what that scroll was. That…that was the corvids summoning contract. 

“Tou-san?”

“Normally, signing the contract would include a public ceremony for the clan but…” Tou-san shrugged. I understood, or at least I thought I did. He didn’t want to give those who weren’t fond of the idea of Naruto being part of the clan a chance to ruin things. So they hadn’t scheduled a ceremony.

“What about Naruto?” I asked. 

Kaa-san smiled. “When he graduates, then he can sign the contract, too, don’t worry.”

Tou-san led me into the audience room, laying out the scroll that was nearly as tall as I was laid out on the floor. I could see his and kaa-san’s names, written in dried blood. A blank white space was waiting for me, as was a senbon. Tou-san extended a hand to me. I sat before the scroll and swallowed nervously as I laid my hand in his palm. He turned my hand over and pricked my thumb with a senbon almost too fast for it to hurt. 

Slowly, carefully, I wrote my name on the scroll, the drag of the paper on my injured thumb hurting more than the initial prick. I sat back when I was done, trying to keep blood from dripping on the tatami. 

“Okay, Kourubi-chan, watch my hands and copy me,” tou-san instructed. 

My hands moved automatically, mirroring his. Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram…

I slammed my hand down onto the tatami, flinching back from the cloud of smoke it caused. I squinted at the smoke, trying to figure out what type of bird I’d summoned. You could imagine my parents’ surprise when I had managed to summon not one, but two birds. They were small, adolescent birds. They probably had only just recently developed their flight feathers. Two pretty, pure black crows. No one in the clan had ever had two partners before. At least no one that I knew. 

“What are you going to name them, Kourubi-chan?” kaa-san asked as she sat beside me and bandaged my still bleeding thumb.

Well…shoot. I hadn’t expected to name them. I thought they came with names. 

“Um…well…” I pointed to the crow on the left. “That one’s Mori and…” I moved to point to the crow on the right. “That one’s Gan.” 

My parents shared a look that clearly said they were amused by my choice in names. Mori, who was slightly smaller than Gan, hopped up onto my knee, staring at me curiously. Gan seemed more interested in everything else in the room, hopping around in the same way a toddler would waddle about a new environment. They were young, like I was. Were they siblings, like Naruto and I tried to be?

“Kaa-san?” I turned to my mother. “Do you think it would be okay if one of them was Naruto’s partner until he’s able to sign the scroll himself?”

The question surprised her, I could tell even though she tried to keep her face neutral. “Well, Kourubi-chan, I suppose that’s something you’ll have to discuss with Naruto and your birds.” 

 

Later that night, as I lay awake in bed, I heard a loud knock at the door. I sat up quickly, tiptoeing over to my door and opening it just a crack. I could hear muffled voices downstairs, bits and pieces of the conversation floating up for my ear to catch.

The person at the door mentioned Naruto and my heart sank. This was it. Naruto was in trouble and if I’d just managed to keep my cool and get him to come home instead of storming off this never would have happened and-

The door to my balcony was open before I realized I’d even crossed the room. Mori and Gan hopped up onto my shoulders, their little nails digging into my too-big sleep shirt as I took off over the rooftops. I knew where Naruto would be. We played hide and seek in the woods all the time and used a tiny, run down shack as a base. No one knew what it had been for originally, and as kids we never cared. If Naruto was hiding anywhere, it’d be there, because none of the adults knew about it. 

Mori and Gan stuck close, their eyesight relatively weak in the darkness. I stopped suddenly with a dull ‘thud’ against the rough bark of a thick tree limb. There was Naruto, sitting on the ground with the scroll wide open. And there was Iruka-sensei, staring down at him. 

“But Mizuki-sensei said that if I learned a technique from this scroll then you’d pass me!” Naruto was saying. I cursed under my breath. If I’d only gotten Naruto to come home!

A whirling sound filled the air. I ducked behind the trunk of the tree I was standing in just in time to see a too-big-for-comfort shuriken hurtle by me. The sickening sound of metal piercing flesh and Naruto’s scream of Iruka-sensei’s name told me everything I needed to know. 

Iruka-sensei shouted at Naruto to take the scroll and run. I caught the briefest glimpse of Naruto’s orange shirt before I darted after him. I wanted to call out to him, tell him to follow me back home, but that would make Mizuki aware of my presence, make me a target. Instead, I followed Naruto, watching, waiting for something to happen. Mizuki was right behind us, Iruka-sensei just a little bit ahead of him. Naruto stopped suddenly, ducking behind a tree. I darted across the branches, settling myself in the branches above him. 

Iruka-sensei stopped, Mizuki right on top of him. I couldn’t imagine how much pain Iruka was in right now. He was panting, leaning heavily against the tree. 

“Why are you defending it?!” I heard Mizuki shout. My gut twisted at the sound of him calling Naruto ‘it’. “It killed your parents! That boy is the Kyuubi and if you had any sense like the rest of us you’d recognize him for the monster he is!”

Naruto gave a tiny gasp below me. And that.

Well, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so they say.

I shot out from behind the tree, my bony, pre-pubescent knee slamming into Mizuki’s nose. He howled angrily, stumbling and falling from his branch, landing a few meters below. He glared up at me, and I met his gaze with equal if not greater intensity. 

“There are plenty of monsters in this village,” I shouted down at him, my hands shaking in rage. “But Naruto isn’t one of them!” 

Mizuki whipped the blood trickling down from his nose on the back of his hand, glancing at it before snarling up at me.

Oh shit.

He jumped for me; hand out to, I don’t know, grab my neck or something. He didn’t get to. Iruka-sensei came out of nowhere and grabbed me about the middle and curled himself around me. He ended up taking a fist to the face because of it. We fell, landing on the ground with a dull thud. My teeth clacked together painfully and my whole body protested the impact, but I knew for a fact that Iruka had taken the brunt of the damage. Which definitely wasn’t good considering that mere moments earlier he’d taken a giant shuriken to the back. How he was still walking I couldn’t fathom. 

“It doesn’t, guh, matter if Naruto is the Kyuubi’s jinchuriki,” Iruka stated, his voice firm and confident despite his injuries. “Because he’s still Uzumaki Naruto, my student, and the boy I’ve acknowledged.” 

Mizuki’s face twisted into a nasty looking scowl. He reached behind him to lift his second giant shuriken off his back…

And it must have really stung his ego when he was kneed in the face by a twelve-year-old child for the second time in less than an hour.

Naruto stood above us, balancing on a tree branch, with an especially dark look on his face. It frightened me how absolutely infuriated he looked. Naruto’s anger was usually loud, predictable. This anger was much quieter, as was his voice when he finally spoke.

“If you lay another finger on either of them, I’ll kill you.”

And suddenly all the trees in the immediate vicinity were full of Naruto’s shadow clones. Iruka pulled me close, turning my head so that all I could see was the mossy green of his flak vest. But just hearing what Naruto was doing to Mizuki was almost worse than being able to see it. Your imagination will always know how to scare you the most, after all. 

The sounds stopped eventually, and Iruka-sensei’s tight grip on me lessened. 

“Kourubi!” I pulled away from Iruka at the sound of Naruto calling my name. His hands seemed to be shaking as he sat in front of me, worry pulling at the corners of his lips. “Are you okay?”

I lunged at him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and all the things I’d been feeling just spilled out. 

“I’m sorry I yelled at you!” I said, almost yelling despite not wanting to. “I didn’t mean it! I was so worried when you didn’t come home and I thought it was all my fault so I came to find you! Oh, Naruto, don’t you listen to a thing Mizuki says! You’re not a monster! You’re my best friend!” 

I started crying when he held me in turn, relief spilling forth in the form of salty tears. He was crying too, I could feel it in the way his shoulders shook and the drops of wetness that landed on my shoulder. 

“Naruto,” Iruka called softly. I pulled away, allowing Naruto to face our teacher. “Close your eyes, I got a surprise for you.”

And then, just as the sun was peeking through the trees, Iruka removed his own headband and slipped it around Naruto’s head. 

“Congratulations,” he said with a smile, one of my favorite smiles. “You’ve officially graduated.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed. Again, this and any other fics in the Melody From Another Ship series will not be updated regularly, just when I have something to share or when I can't make the usual update schedule with the main fic. Again, thank you for reading!


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